ce will do you no good,
my man! Answer the Sergeant's question!"

"I decline to do so."

Stonor said: "I have established the point I wished to make, sir. He
can't answer it."

Major Egerton proceeded: "Well, why didn't you wait for her until she
got well?"

"I had to make a garden at home."

"You travelled three hundred miles down the river and back again to make
a garden!"

"We have to eat through the winter."

"Stonor, was there a garden started at Imbrie's place?"

"Yes, sir, but it had been started weeks before. The potatoes were
already several inches high."

Imbrie said: "I planted the potatoes before I left."

"Well, leave the garden for the present." The Major indicated Clare.
"You know this lady?"

"I should hope so."

"Confine your answers to plain statements, please. Who is she?"

"My wife."

"Have you any proof of that?"

"She says so. She ought to know."

The Major addressed Clare. "Is it true that you have said you were his
wife?"

"I cannot tell you of my own knowledge, sir. Sergeant Stonor has told me
that before I lost my memory I told him I was Ernest Imbrie's wife."

The Major bowed and returned his attention to Imbrie. "When and where
were you married?"

"I decline to answer."

The excellent Major, who was not noted for his patience with the
evil-doer, turned an alarming colour, yet he still sought to reason with
the man. "The answer to that question could not possibly injure you
under any circumstances."

"Just the same, I decline to answer. You said it was my right."

With no little difficulty the Major still held himself in. "I am
asking," he said, "for information which will enable me to return this
lady to her friends until her memory is restored."

"I decline to give it," said Imbrie hardily. His face expressed a
pleased vanity in being able, as he thought, to wield the whip-hand over
the red-coats.

The little Major exploded. "You damned scoundrel!" he cried. "I'd like
to wring your neck!"

"Put that down, please," Imbrie said to the clerk with ineffable
conceit.

The Major put his hands behind his back and stamped up and down the four
paces that comprised the length of his tent. "Stonor, I wonder--I wonder
that you took the patience to bring him to last night!" he stammered.
"Go on and question him if you want. I haven't the patience."

"Very well, sir. Imbrie, when I was taking you and this lady back to
Fort Enterprise, why did you carry her off?"

"